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WE DON'T TAKE PLASTIC
30/5/03: Household collection of plastics are no longer being taken through the Council's green box scheme. The decision is down to cost: sorting and baling the plastic is around £1000 pounds per tonne, but only £100 can be recovered.
"The decision was forced upon us because SITA, who operate the waste disposal contract for County have advised that they will no longer be able to accept plastic wastes for recycling from June," says Coun Jon Barry. "If we do deliver any they will just end up in the landfill anyway.
"I'm finding out what we have already done to find alternative markets.
Jon is currently investigating whether another product can be collected instead of plastic. "I had originally hoped we could substitute glass but it is not immediately practicable," says Jon. "The vehicles used currently only have two recycling compartments and one is used for paper, the other mixed cans and plastics. So there is no space on them to collect mixed glass." Glass also has to be carefully sorted to have any practical recycling value, too.
" There is a market for mixed cullet, but it is small and has little value compared with separated colours.
" On the positive side, an enhanced collection with recycling is programmed to be introduced in Poulton from mid-summer and another 14,000 properties will be included in the roll-out of wheeled bins with enhanced recycling from September/October.
" The problem with plastic [collection] is that it is shipped out (or flown out) to the Far East," adds Jon, "so that they can pay dirt cheap labour to sort out the different sorts on a conveyor belt. This includes all the stuff collected at Salt Ayre. The real failing is the lack of a local factory to process the plastic into something useful. "Government and European money could be used to provide a facility that we really need.
"The other problem is that there is just too much crappy plastic around!"
Salt Ayre and other places will continue to have plastic recycling facilities. The matter will be discussed at the next Council cabinet meeting.
In other "rubbish" news, we're informed the Council is short of refuse vehicles and it is virtually impossible to get them at the moment. Apparently every Council in the country is trying to increase recycling and is placing similar orders! The council did manage to get four vehicles from Volvo, but they've had to be sent back for modification because they failed their test drive!

WHITE DUST MYSTERY SOLVED
A mystery "white dust" that seemed to mysteriously appear all over parts of Lancaster earlier this week (see below) has been explained. The City Council conducted a major weedkiller spraying on Bank Holiday Monday. Local environmentalists were concerned the "dust" was some kind of emission from a local factory. However, we would like to know what the weedkiller was that caused such an obvious residue.

MORECAMBE FIRM GET SMART!
28/5/03: Morecambe firm In Touch Ltd has received a £45,000 Smart feasibility study award to help turn a bright business idea into a marketable product.
The funding has been provided from the Small Business Service's Smart programme, which provides grants to help individuals and small and medium sized companies to commercially exploit innovative new ideas.
The project is designed to create a programming platform to allow linking of portable workstations to GPS and office computer with increased efficiency, elimination of up to five levels of duplication, a reduction in errors, increased cashflow and creation of a simple audit trail.
One computer programme will be able to be used to raise orders, produce invoices, produce reports and allocate work.

Company details:
In Touch Ltd, Victoria Buildings, 66-67 Marine Road, Morecambe. Contact: Mr John Walden. Tel: 01524 833588.

A white dust has appeared on the streets of Lancaster. What is it? (Click the image for a larger picture)

WHITE DUST MYSTERY
28/5/03: A mystery "white dust" has begun to appear all over the streets of Skerton and West Lancaster. Does anyone know what this white dust (which seems like washing powder) is? Does anyone know of any emissions from local factories, that fits the description? (Click the image for a larger picture).
The mystery dust has appeared just a week after Lancaster City Council announced it had completed a thorough review of air quality across the district including Lancaster, Morecambe and the Lune Valley.

RAIL WOES -- IT JUST GETS WORSE...
28/5/03: After our report last week on how many trains no longer stop at Lancaster with the introduction of the new summer timetable, we've had further complaints from rail users.
"I'm one of the many furious rail users who's already horrendous return journey from Preston to Lancaster has been made even more difficult," writes Michael Compton. "Due to the flexi-time procedures in Lancashire County Council, employees cannot leave work before 4.00pm even if they have made up enough time before hand. If I need to visit a shop or office during the week, which does not open on the weekend, it is now impossible.
"There are dozens of Lancashire County Council employees in the same situation."
The raile woes don't stop there - trains between Lancaster and Preston were brought to a halt on Monday after a tree fall blocked the line. On Friday, rail travellers to the West Country were gob smacked when Virgin decided to split one of its Voyager trains in half at Birmingham New Street -- meaning passengers had to cram into half a train for the rest of their journey. While Virgin did provide plenty of staff to help move luggage, the reason for the decision remained a mystery.
If you have a complaint about rail service, here are some places you can write to:

Your Local MP
Contact your local MP about rail travel, explaining what you think is wrong and what should be done.

Write to your MP at:
The House of Commons
Westminster
London
SW1 0AA

Given the state of the rail industry, it will not surprise you that there are several people involved:

The Strategic Rail Authority
Responsible for ensuring that current Passenger Service Requirements are met (which say, for example that we should be able to get to London by 5.00pm on a Sunday), and for any improvements that might be made as part of the refranchising processes.

Write to:
The Director
Strategic Rail Authority
55 Victoria Street,
London
SW1H 0EU

Virgin Trains
Chris Green
Chief Executive
Virgin Trains
85 Smallbrook Queensway
Birmingham
B5 4HA

Railtrack NorthWest
Write to:
Mike Cowman
Managing Director
Railtrack North West Zone
Rail House
Store Street
Manchester
M60 7RT

Rail Passengers Committee for North Western England
Represents rail passengers. If they get a few letters they will hopefully take up the issue - and the various fragments of rail industry do seem to listen to them.

John Moorhouse Secretary
Rail Passengers Committee for North Western England
Fifth Floor
Boulton House
17 - 21 Chorlton Street
Manchester
M60 7RT

BULL IN A CHINA SHOP!
27/5/03: A raging bull injured a shopper and caused thousands of pounds worth of damage and lost business when it broke into an antiques emporium on Bank Holiday Monday, reports Judith Coyle.
The bull broke free from the auction market, where he was due to be sold for slaughter, and sought sanctuary in nearby GB Antiques, the North West's largest antiques' fair which specialises in china.
"He broke through a fence," said Barry Cohen, groundsman at the Lancaster Leisure Park site, "and made his way across the field and headed straight through the doors of the antiques market."
Terrified shoppers looked on as the bull butted a female shopper and threw her into the air. "He then went on to smash the china," Mr Cohen revealed.
A receptionist at the store called an ambulance and the injured woman, Ms Christine Knight from Penwortham, was taken to Royal Lancaster Infirmary. She was said to be conscious but very shaken.
Police arrived and cordoned off the site, owned by entrepreneur Alan Blackburn, which hosts the antiques market, children's play area, a factory shop, restaurant and go-cart racing track and is a favourite with bank holiday crowds, many of whom turn up in coaches.
After discussing the situation with the bull's owner, Mr Frank Lee from Lower Slainshead Farm in Over Wyresdale, the police shot the animal to avoid any further risk to public safety.
Ms Knight was treated in hospital for minor bruising and later discharged.

WHITE LUND DEPOT OPEN DAY
28/5/03: Have you ever wondered how to make a hanging basket or make your garden bloom? Have you got spare furniture, which you want to get rid off, or have you maybe wondered how to start home composting?
You will find the answers to all these questions and many more on Saturday 7 June. Come along and join in the fun to celebrate World Environment Day with Lancaster City Council.
White Lund Depot Nursery and Recycling Public open day will take place at White Lund Garden Centre between 10.00 - 4.00.
The day is packed with fun for all the family giving tips on all kinds of household matters: Hanging Basket Demos, Furniture Recycling, Paint Recycling, Home Composting etc.
There will also be a variety of new exciting plants available and lots of fun for the children, who can take part in Paper Making Workshops, a fun quiz or get their faces painted.
And remember you can get your own copy of the District's first Recycling Directory, which will be launched on the day.

• The Lancaster and District LA21 Recycling Directory will be availble from libaries on 16 June.

'MOULDY' WATER EXPLAINED
27/5/03: Reports of "mouldy tasting" water in the Lancaster area seem to have been explained. Richard Twine wrote to say: "After finding a sudden change in taste to my domestic tap water just over two weeks ago (to a mouldy taste), this morning I had a visit from United Utilities.
"It was explained to me that the local water plant recently changed its sourcing of water to river supplies (I think they do this seasonally when reservoirs get low). River supplies are not as clean and require more treatment due to algae problems, more overall organic content and so on. So, to alleviate this a lot of chlorine is added and this is what has given rise to the change in taste.
"Apparently there is an alternative to chlorine that does not produce this taste, but it is not used anymore as it is 'too expensive'.
"The United Utilities guy said straight away that he knew what the problem was since he'd already been to several other houses in both Morecambe and Lancaster. The water plant has been notified and they are taking steps to reduce the chlorine, and that the bad taste should go in the next day or so."
Since Richard contacted Virtual-Lancaster about the problem last week, we have since had numerous e-mails from other readers expressing similar problems in water quality. Let's hope United Utilities sort it out as promised...

REGIONAL GUIDANCE INFLUENCES HOUSING LAND IN LANCASTER
27/5/03: Recent guidance to all Lancashire Councils from the Government Office for the North West will have a significant effect on housing development in Lancaster District.
The new Regional Planning Guidance published in March makes the regeneration of low demand areas such as East Lancashire a high priority for Government. To counter the effects of home owners leaving those areas, other Lancashire Districts have been advised to reduce house building to lower levels proposed in the new Joint Lancashire Structure Plan.
Where Councils have been performing well in meeting older targets, with higher levels of housebuilding, they will now have to find ways of applying the brakes. Councils like Lancaster City will need to produce new guidance documents to demonstrate how they intend to prevent an oversupply of housing land continuing after 2006.
The new strategy confirms proposals for new housing such as Whinney Carr in South Lancaster will receive short shrift from the government.
Although there are plenty of planning permissions in place to meet the new target of 380 new homes each year until 2006, land which might have obtained permission in the past, may have to wait for permission, until the need for additional land for housing has been established.
The Council is aiming to have supplementary planning guidance in place shortly.

CND MEET ANNOUNCED
The Annual General Meeting of Lancaster and District CND will take place at the Friends Meeting House, Lancaster, on Friday 13 June at 7.30 pm.

ARTISTS AT THE FOLLY
Canadian sound and visual artists Jamie Drouin and Lance Olsen, working under the name drouin:olsen, will be giving a talk and performance about their work at the Folly Gallery on Monday 9 June. The artists aim to focus their audience's attentions on sounds which are normally hidden under the surface of everyday experience. Using microphones, which act more like stethoscopes, drouin:olsen capture the sound of a pen moving across a piece of paper, or the interaction with the surface of a wall. These 'micro-events' become the sole subject of gentle, meditative compositions recorded and created in realtime on laptops, then relayed back to the audience.
• Tickets: £2.50 full price; £1.50 concessions; free to members of Folly Teacher's notes are available to support this exhibition and class visits are welcome.
For more information contact: Lesley Rose Education Coordinator tel: 01524 388550; email:


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